Sky Hooked
by TopazSoarhire
Summary: They're the kind of accidents you prefer to call.....accidents, and more and more each day. Has a new menace infiltrated Sky High? Or has one of their own turned against them? OC's
1. What a Landing!

_G'day I'm sure with all the reviews I'm spreading around you're wondering if its Pot calling the Kettle black. This is your chance to decide! I like criticism, I like reviews! Hit me with your best shot! _

_w w w . g e o c i t i e s . c o m / s k y h i g h e r g u i d e_

_Yep, hardly subtle when it comes to advertising. No worries._

_I would like to apologise in advance for the swearing, but I like to think it is in context and there will be no casual swearing , unless it fits the character, actually one character in mind. (Devious smirk) Yes, she is my way of venting my frustrations but isn't based on anyone in particular. Promise._

_That's that, enjoy!_

**Sky Hooked**

**Chapter 1  
**_What a Landing!_

Erin sat on the culvert, tapping one foot idly as she waited for the bus. She wore the blankest, most bored expression achievable without illegal narcotics.

On the surface there were thoughts about stationary, pens and making the right kind of friends, but beneath it were, not so much thoughts as messages, slightly alien. Altitude, wind direction, rising thermals.

A car backfired in the next street and after a long moment, she stirred, shaking out her hair and honed her hearing for any other vehicles. None.

Her parents had been surprisingly vague about getting to her new school. Fair enough as she hadn't inherited these talents from them. She didn't expect whoever was in charge to comfortable with mere mortals being in on the secret.

She spied a bird far off, outlined against an odd, frothy grey cloud and considered blinking again, but decided against it. She really didn't like how often she used her powers, it just encouraged her parents. Neither they, nor her tutors knew their extent. Or she for that matter.

It was another reason for attending Sky High, to test her safe limitations so she wouldn't hurt herself or others.

That and some unwritten law that even adolescences with the absurdist of 'powers' had to complete one year at a specialized school.

The same irritation welled up.

This constant annoyance nagged her since her parents had found out about her powers a few months prior. She still cringed at the screaming match that ensued the next morning.

Erin, who rarely done anything which warranted more than mild disapproval had been genuinely frightened by her mother. Amber had ranted and shouted for over an hour about how special and talented and lucky she was to have inherited them, and that she should have started school last year even if there weren't outward signs. A voice like rabid dog boomed from a woman who was usually bright, bubbly and empty as a cheerleader.

To father and daughter, a year behind wasn't much damage done in the circumstances, but mother had been vehement about staying with her age group.

Since the argument, which Erin unconsciously named D-Day, she had been put through her paces by two old family acquaintances just so she could catch up.

_But it had been her dream,_ she reasoned, _Living through the child and all that_.

Even though there were times when she hugged her mother's neck she expected to hear noises of the seashore whistling from her ear, she loved her.

Erin was one of life's cynics. This didn't depress her, always looking towards the worst side of human nature, but it gave everyday commentary a little bit of spice.

She sighed drearily.

Except now. All the double entendres in the world didn't make her feel better. She did not want to do this. It wasn't so much irritation now, but frustration.

While ridding the world of Mega Death Rays and Cataclysmic Meteor Strikes was all well and good, there were still the more normal, human problems to contend with. Leukaemia, poverty and deforestation for instance. Even if she could only help in some small way, maybe discovering the enzymes found in some rare African beetle's digestive tract that could induce cell apoptosis in amphibians, it would be more worthwhile than this and-

This line of work rarely offered long term security. Employers were all for providing pensions but were extremely reluctant when it came to life insurance.

She related much more to her father whose profession as an honest, successful, and above all safe statistician reduced most of life's mysteries into columns and numbers. He had stood behind her mother out of his wife's line of sight on D-Day, the most agreeable man on the planet, with a sympathetically sad smile.

Sad because he hadn't been trusted with the secret.

Noi was Indonesian by birth but they both shared same thin face, with the same faintly suspicious expression, baring the same olive complexion and almond eyes. They had the same oily black hair which her father probably trimmed short for that reason. Erin didn't dare keep her hair shorter than her shoulders otherwise she would almost certainly be mistaken for a boy. Her clothing didn't make the distinction any easier.

She looked lazily at her choice in wardrobe and stewed over last night. Preparing her 'outfit' for this morning had been the epitome of everything that she had in common with her mother.

_Just what did you wear to a high school for superheros? Besides capes and masks. A good deal would be physical education, so something that allowed flexibility, but not baggy so I'd trip over it._

She had eventually settled on a polo shirt, mismatched with the lurid green basketball shorts of the Australian Boomers. They made her legs look like chocolate dipped paddlepop sticks but it would do. She wondered humorously if she should put her knickers on the outside so she could fit in.

There was a rapping on the door and before she could sing out to come in, her mother already glided through the door. She froze abruptly in midstep with a despairing cry.

"You aren't wearing that, are you?" she had said with a pleading look.

Canadian born, although later settled in Australia were she met Noi, Amber was a glamorous caucasian. Beach blonde curls framed baby blue eyes. She had a head of height over her husband and the kind of curves her daughter never dreamed of. She had spent her youth modelling in small time clothing catalogues, then as a fashion designer but had happily settled into secretary of Noi's booming trade.

She also completely failed to conceal the- costume; there was no other word in Erin's considerable vocabulary, behind her back.

"Mum, no," she complained equally pleading. She pleaded because standing up to her parents was not one of her highlights and if Amber applied enough pressure she would cave in like a poorly shored shale mine. Life was always easier if you simply agreed and played by rules adults set.

Her generation would get to choose the retirement home in the end.

"Come on Rinny, you'd look so pretty," her mother crooned. She then dangled it in front of her hopefully, jiggling it as if that would make it more appealing. Erin stared at it, a combination of shellshock and being blinded by the sequins. "Why won't you wear it?"

There were many reasons why she wouldn't, nay, couldn't wear it.

She resented the longing she felt settle into her gaze. It went against everything feminists burned bras for, but she knew it would be nice, in some alternate universe, to fit into it, even flaunt it.

Such an outfit had been made for a body with more _oomph_ to it. A… _body_… like Amber's which could poke someone's eye out on a cold day. In fact, it was thus anatomy that seemed to hold the entire thing together. Just looking at the tiny synthetic shorts made her crotch cringe.

Still, for how old it was it was in amazing condition.

In fact, had it been dry cleaned?

She didn't wonder how Amber managed that, Amber had _connections._ Amber was all about connections, about friends and acquaintances and people who owed her favours. Every time one of her old schools attempted to raise money with bake sales and sausage sizzles she would be at the forefront, calling Harry to see if he would donate the meat, and Sally if she'd provide bread rolls, and before you'd know it people were calling _her_ to give beetroot and tomatoes and potato salad.

This had merely set rolling a whole other set of _connections_ that had probably lain dormant for a long time.

"Because it wouldn't fit me," she had said finally, hoping she wouldn't press the matter. She laid her choice over the chair of her desk which was still crowded with old assignment notes and book references from civilian school. Her mother hadn't given her enough time these holidays to sit down let alone tidy up.

"Oh, we could take a few things in!" she chirped, giving the bust an embarrassing pat.

Luckily common sense and a few laws against indecent exposure won the argument, but Erin hated the disheartened slump to Amber's shoulders as she padded out. She knew that once she left the room it would be lovingly stored in her mother's closet with a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and family photos of the delicate nature.

Erin didn't _really_ mind that she had big shoes to fill, only that they were bright, glittery and had been _constructed_ with the intention of breaking ankles. They weren't so much footwear as they were architecture.

Of course she had known immediately when the news was announced that her parents had an alternative agenda when moving to America two years ago even if they hadn't known about her powers. Amber, a blabbermouth at heart, was unusually defensive because it was where her mother died, Erin being only five at the time, and her father always spoke of it with faint distaste, mostly in association with crime rates.

Erin, whose analytical mind preferred to think in terms of evolution, speculated this was why the country spat forth superheros with the determination of a spawning salmon.

And like a salmon, Erin had stated dryly, she had made a pointless migration tens of thousands of kilometres which would probably end in her demise.

But it was an opportunity, something both parents repeated constantly. And opportunities shouldn't be left to slip through fingers.

It was just that her 'super' powers couldn't really do much in the way of _super_heroing. There was no such thing as a 'Fair 'Nuff' Hero, or at least not for very long.

She sighed heavily again. She had such a strong sense of pride and she knew that even if she loathed it she would still try for A's.

She would do her _best._ She would _achieve._

Her mind attempted another difficult, optimistic step forward.

It would give her, _perspective_.

Although it was quite difficult to have perspective when you were dangling from chains above a pit of mutated crocodiles and a supervillain cackled about melting the icecaps.

Or as a pile of slightly greasy ash.

It was at this point, wondering if it had been worth the trouble of listing herself as an Organ Donor on her drivers license that the bus trundled around the corner.

It didn't stand out as far as American buses went, which Erin thought of as yellow shoeboxes on wheels, but just what had she been expecting? Jet boosters and futuristic silver fins?

It bumped a little too near to the curve for comfort and she gained close inspection at the scaled paint as she scrambled out of the gutter just in time. What drew her attention was that the bubbles in the coat above the tire rims were heat blisters. As the door flung open with a clatter she brushed it curiously with her fingers, and it came off in flakes against her fingers.

"Heyah!" She looked up with an embarrassed smile and wiggled her fingers, yellow flecks still on their tips. "Are you sure you're going on the right bus honey?"

Erin had long ago come to terms that she looked young for her age. Either that or they didn't think she spoke English. She could take the patronising tone so long as corrected themselves afterwards and didn't mention the time old adage that involved big things and small packages.

She was convinced that it was because of that saying why so many short people were bitter.

She'd better speak before he assumed she was the latter.

"G'day, Sky High, right?"

"Oh, uh, sorry 'bout that. They'd chew me a new cakehole if I let a citizen on the bus, you know? Climb aboard."

"Thankyou very much," she smiled politely, hitching herself up the guard rail and preparing for any commentary on her accent. Instead he extended a meaty hand.

"Name's Jack Carson," the plump bus driver tipped the sunglasses perched on top of his blond head. "A word of notice, when the bus is full I'd grab your bag and try and hold onto your lunch."

She gazed down the aisle, and Jack tapped the steering wheel impatiently behind her.

Not feeling confident enough to pick a seat next to someone, she shuffled about halfway where she could have one all to herself. In the middle she had a fair view of the other students. They ranged from fourteen to maybe eighteen in some cases and as she dropped into the seat she stared warily like a scientist that has discovered a fascinating new virus.

But it was safer to keep these observations too herself.

A mild concussion was the worst a civilian could do.

Spontaneous combustion was a whole other kettle of fish.

Mindful of the bus driver's advice she crossed her legs and lifted her knapsack into her lap. It felt too light to be getting an _education_, even if said education probably involved how to shout witty catchphrases as you punched someone.

Her mother on the other hand thought starting a new school was fun and exciting for different reasons entirely. It was a chance to reinvent yourself, to make new friends and to climb the social ladder, to get hip with the popular kids. In other words, connections.

Her gaze swept critically from one kid to another.

A girl spun gossamer webs of rainbows between her fingers. Lightning crackled around her friend's fingers like wedding rings. A boy, so pale he looked anaemic kept scratching his back where she glimpsed feathers. Sickle thorns erupted from another kid's arms when his girlfriend tickled him. A sullen thundercloud, no bigger than a toy truck, hovered ominously over nerdish boy's head. Its owner's grin reminded her of a pre-schooler who'd eaten all the glue when no one was looking.

She let out a deep breath through her nose. There were so many obvious jokes it would have been demeaning to make them.

"Hey, mind if I share a seat with you? _Some _friends," the boy then shot a feigned glare at the boy behind her, sprawled across his with wolfish grin. "Are inconsiderate assholes."

Erin nodded unthinkingly and shuffled down to let the boy join her. He offered an absent smile then leant over to talk to his friends, Anaemic and the gangly one beside him with an accent that was probably Scottish.

At least she wasn't the only who's parents had fell for the pamphlet that read 'The Best Super Hero Education!' If her experience with Mighty Man was any guideline she could only speculate it meant everything from Beginners Guide to Spandex and Advanced Pose Striking, followed by a hundred laps and pushups.

More kids, ranging from timid to malicious filled up the last remaining seats as the bus bumbled along, or tried to. On the eighth stop, girl who suffered from a severe toothache and a funeral _didn't_ walk down the aisle. It was most definitely a stalk, possibly leaning towards a skulk.

And she glared.

A death glare in fact.

The kind of glare supposed to suggest a number of messages.

_You are unworthy._

_Touch me and I'll kill you._

_Make me angry and you will be standing in a puddle of your own urine. You will have a nightlight in every room and live in fear of running out of batteries. You will welcome death._

What it in fact conveyed was that its owner read too many books and took literary licence far too literally.

And upon spotting this unique glare, a chain reaction began in Wolfish. By the time Toothache stood above him, still glaring, it was in full swing. Wolfish's smile was now goofy and lopsided and he shuffled eagerly allowing her in beside him.

Now Erin had a clear view of her, and she looked like she had tumbled head first through a tackle shop. There were enough fishnets to suffice an industrial trawler, and if there wasn't fishnet, there was tattered black material. Black was a major component of her personality.

The bus heaved down the busy street.

Then the nasal snorting began, low, sick, phlegmy. There was no doubt it heralded something contagious and also hinted of pussy red boils and embarrassing swelling.

And it was Wolfish, who had breathed comfortably only moments before.

Using her peripheral vision, she strained madly to watch what happened.

One of Wolfish's eyes which had miraculously become lazy, was as loose as a rolling marble and to accompany the hitching breath a daub of mucus dribbled from his nostril.

Toothache glared again, and Erin had to fight her body's laughter. She knew a professional shitstirrer when she saw one; glaring insults and threats only encouraged them.

Wolfish dropped a conspirator's wink with his lazy eye.

"Fuck off, loser," Toothache sneered rudely, watching the snot swing like a suspended mountain climber with disgust. "Unless you want to end up as charcoal!"

"_Hnugh, hnugh,"_ Wolfish laboured. "_Hnugh, _Want a gummie bear? They're nice and warm from being in my pocket!"

He proffered bag full of congealed sugar embossed with fingerprints. The hand that held them had a rash as savage as a barbarian hoard, pillaging and burning as it went. If you watched closely you could _see_ it gain ground over the first knuckle.

"I'd _hnugh, hnugh,_ reach for the bottom ones, _hnugh_, I've sucked some of the ones on top." This time he scooted the grimy bag right under her nose and she scuttled back with a revolted squawk! She only saved herself from hitting the aisle floor just in time. She hauled herself upright, snatched up her bag and snapped her fingers under the packet.

The gummie bear torch leapt up!

Wolf let go just in time and it splattered on her shoes.

She snarled and kicked it down the aisle before wedging herself bodily on the back seat with Mr Thundercloud.

"Quit it!" Jack yelled, not taking his off the road but darting glances at the review mirror to see why the kids cackled like hyenas. One student doused the fire with a icy beam.

"Enough horsing around," Jack growled again. Erin's gaze darted out the window where the last house had disappeared and ahead lay a steep gully. The road just stopped. Just in time she saw huge boosters unfold from what she had mistaken for baggage compartments. "And I suggest the newbies hang on."

The tongues roared to life and erupted into a hot white gout inside the boosters. She _felt_ the air concussion smack the sides deep beneath her skin just as thick harnesses laced her chest and the bus lurched almost vertically into the air. The ground fell away, her stomach with it. As her gourd rose to her throat she threw her head between her knees on reflex, but reflex didn't take into account a steel enforced bus seat not 40cm away.

Pain coupled with giddy confusion blossomed between her eyes, but at least it took the focus from the rollercoaster in her belly. And the inertia had levelled off in the mean time.

Erin leaned her throbbing head against the window which hummed under the changing pressure. Metal groaned faintly but the bus despite reason felt safe.

"Aww mate," she groaned. She rubbed her ears as pressure bubbled inside, which gave her the same uncomfortable cringing feeling as nails on a blackboard. She could never stop rubbing her ears until it passed.

Conversation seeped back into the bus. She recognised other new kids as they gawked out the window as clouds swept like liquid nitrogen mist over the bus or chattered shrilly to the person beside them. Most wore a combination of excitement and seasickness.

Erin rubbed her ears again, waiting hopefully for the pop as pressure equalised.

"Heya, you okay?"

She twisted over her shoulder to see Wolfish grinning again. His eye was once again tethered and his nose cleared up, but the rash just started to disperse, pulling in on itself like ink being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. Her eyes were nailed to it in delighted fascination.

"Oh that," he confessed unselfconsciously. He stabbed his thumb at his chest and beamed. "I'm the Super-World's answer to AIDs!"

This time she was forced to wretch her gaze away from the receding rash on his neck to his face to see if he was serious. He was. It was an open face, Italian, or maybe Hispanic or something along those lines, framed by longish, crimped brown hair. There wasn't a blotch or blemish on it, which made her very self-conscious of her crop of pimples by her temples she kept hidden at all times in spite of her mother's lectures.

She considered his declaration carefully with curiosity. "So you destroy immune systems? Wow!"

"Nah! Can't destroy immune systems, but I can make 'em go into hiding. My parents kinda got the hint when I accidentally asked them to fill out sick notes in advance."

Laughing heartily, she asked "So your parents are superheros?"

"Yeah, although gramma, ma and pa did expect to inherit their powers," Wolfish shrugged with eyes bright. "They all kinda specialise in water, triple whammy, so you can see why I had over thirty sickies under my belt."

"Well, that stunt you pulled with Toothache over there was hilarious! I could barely stop from laughing when you said you'd licked them already! Who was she?"

"Bah, new kid. We get them offensive goth transfers like the plague. I'm Astaire Wrinser, by the way."

"Astaire, huh? Tapdance much?"

"Nope, proverbial two left feet. You?

"I'm Erin-"

"Wind based?"

"Close but no cigar," she answered happily. "I'm new at this school thing. My parents only found out a couple of months ago when mum found me."

"So you knew before, and you didn't say anything?"

"You didn't."

"That's different, I was profiting from it with lots of nice cushy sleepins. So you didn't want to come here?"

"Ha! Well, no, not really. More like I wanted to get an education."

"This is an education," Astaire prodded with the same infuriating smile, but it was infectious. The problem was Erin had never tried to put words to the feeling of dissatisfaction.

"In what? How to wear your underpants on the outside in ten easy steps?" she tried with an easy smile. She was thinking of Mighty Man, whose geriatric decline hadn't changed a lot in the upstairs bedroom, but a crease had formed between Astaire's brow.

Above their heads a speaker crackled with static and Mr Carson tried to carry his voice over his charges saying that the bus would reach their destination in five minutes.

"Superheros' aren't meatheads you know. The world needs them."

"But the world also needs dentists, park rangers and people to look after the elderly."

The debate was cut off as a shout, low but suddenly rising in panic carried over the banter of the bus. "Ooooooohhhhfaaaaahh-"

"Oh for Christ sake, Scoddy!" Astaire exclaimed, attempting to relieve the tension that had crept across the conversation. "Voice finally break, huh?"

But things weren't all that they seemed, a hushed hysteria was rippling away from Scod who sat on the window side with Anaemic. Around her kids were leaning out of their seats regardless of Mr Carson's frantic orders.

Dark brooding clouds similar to that one earlier swarmed around the bus like a hoard of bees.

Small as she was, and a veteran escape artist of childhood, Erin squirmed out of her harness and stood up, sidling down the aisle until she had a clear view of Mr Carson and blinked.

The clouds held his full attention and she could see his lips moving in silent curses. "No, this isn't right!" came out so faint she could barely hear. She then realised that the air had a faint buzzing feel to it and the hair on her arms stood up in unison. Her vision switched again and focused on the windscreen wipers. No flimsy rubber ones were this but thick and dependable, just right for a rocket powered school bus.

"Hey, Jacko!"

"NOT! NOW!"

But before her eyes the inch thick wiper began to smoke and the arms were corroding with a noxious green coat. And there was blue! If she stared hard enough wispy blue tendrils snaked excitedly around them.

Something caught her eye.

Gaining with tremendous speed in the bus's side mirror was a blazing blue comet.

"What the hel-!"

A blast of green exploded opposite her body and suddenly the bus was rocked by a blow.

No, it was clobbered.

The reinforced steel wall just in front of Scod was torn wide open and concertinaed as easily as can of sardines!

Sparks leapt from the dash board, crackling. The bus was engulfed in strobe light flashes and the seat harnesses were lashed back into their holding clips.

Anguished metal and children both screamed and shrieked and were tossed like a salad! They scrambled away from the window in blind panic. The only thing that stopped several members being torn away in the screaming wind was an older girl, her arms wide as she bolstered a bright green shield stretched across the gap.

The bus was flung into a wild roll, everything vibrating crazily from the crash.

The students themselves were hurled against the other wall with a united thump. They slid down, cowering on the roof of the capsized bus.

The girl sustaining the force field hit the glass with her shoulder. The barrier stuttered.

Meanwhile the bus's system tried to right itself. It rolled upright like a half buoyant barrel but jerked from side to side.

More children screamed, thin, trailing wails as a melee broke out in desperation to reach the safer front end of the bus with Mr Carson. Wind ripped and clutched through the hole. Friends fumbled as one would slide towards the gaping hole. Hand clasped hand as those fortunate enough to be tangled safely in the bus seats pulled their friends after them.

Except one.

"Scod!" Scod's fingers scrimped and scraped as he slid backwards, eyes as empty as teacups. Concussion, but still some deeper part of the brain told him to grab. And scream.

Bai, whom Erin had mentally labelled Anaemic, shoved his way past a knot of hysteric girls, his wings unfurling instinctively, but uselessly. Clambering over a seat, he reached Veronica sitting on the bus floor with her legs wrapped around a seat and preparing another barrier in her upturned palm. He gestured, shouting over the sucking wind but she shook her head. Her breath came in tight breaths and her eyes glazed with frightened tears. Not for dying, but the decision they both had been taught.

Sacrifice the few to save the many.

Bai's gaze locked on his friend. Although Scod's fingers laced tightly around the leg of a seat, his legs dangled out into space. What was worse was that realization was flooding back into his face.

Bai threw his head around towards the front looking for Astaire but found something worse. The impact had bashed Jack's head against the glass and he lolled bonelessly. Two students yammered as they pushed buttons. One sat on top of Jack's prone body working the pedals and the other read from a scrappy paper book, the manual.

Finally caught sight of Astaire's fuzzy hair, struggling to unknit himself from his classmates. Another student, the rainbow girl, had secured her classmates with huge knotted ribbons of colour like seatbelts. His shouts were drowned out as he hurled himself at his bonds, screaming at Lisa to let him go but she shook her head inside a gossamer aura.

Only one other was still down his end of the bus, twined under another seat and rubbing her head.

Bai tapped Veronica, pointing at himself and shaking his head, then traced his finger through the air just before the concertinaed metal. She tried to argue but he darted forward.

She threw up the barrier in his wake.

He glanced again at Scod, his white knuckled grip was slipping…..

……_.…slipping……. _

_...slipping……._

…_Gone_

Bai screamed, lunging for his friend and was caught immediately by the sucking wind. He was pulled onto the seat that had sustained Scod and only flaring his wings could he wedge and save himself from being tugged after Scod into the air. He gazed over the razor teeth of metal that had been exposed by the ripped metal, his biceps straining.

Clinging to a seat right on the edge he was torn with indecision as his best friend's body dwindled away through the dispersing clouds.

A small body suddenly thudded against his, thumping him closer edge like a half-popped cork.

"What they hell are you waiting for!"

Pressed against his shoulder was the kid! That, that little Asian girl who was hiding under the seat! Her long ponytail streamed away from her as she elbowed her way onto his shoulder for a better vantage.

"You can fly-" The words trailed off. "Oh gawd your wings would be torn clean off!"

No hesitation. She flopped bodily over the back of the seat and dropped into the clouds.

From the other end of the bus, the students watched in shock. Astaire's eyes bulged as Erin flung herself through the cavernous hole, but didn't have the time.

"Let me out Lisa!"

"You can't save Scod now!" she screamed back, looking exhausted as more and more power was drained into the rainbow ropes. Only one thin string looped around her waist stopped her from sliding back.

"This isn't about Sc-od," he croaked, his voice cracking. "I can fly the bus!"

"How the hell do you know how to fly the bus!"

"I read it in the library! In case we ever got hit by a _goddamned _meteor in the _goddamned_ middle of nowhere on a CLEAR! GODDAMNED! DAY! Now shut up and let me out!"

In shock Lisa released the RainBow cinched around his shoulders and he was slammed into the first seat. His head missed the steel bar by millimetres but the worn foam padded seat wasn't much consolation. He grunted, and weaved between the other tethered kids watching with wild eyes.

"Out of my way!" Astaire snapped, wobbling along the aisle and sidestepping an unconscious First Year. At the helm was good old Sam, a sidekick but cool as a cucumber in any situation and a new kid poring frantically over the driver's manual. He didn't trust the RainBow around his waist enough and was gripping the open glove compartment with one hand.

"Astaire," Sam said jovially, but with a hint of anxiety. Beneath him Jack stirred, groaning but didn't wake up. "You say you can drive this thing?"

"Why the hell are we level? We need to go up!"

"Best I can _do_ is keep it level. _Frig_! That storm wasn't natural. It's gone now but it ate up the paint like acid and caused a short circuit."

"Lisa and Ronnie can't keep up forever and neither can we. People are going to ask questions if a bus falls from the sky. We need to get to Sky High!"

"Maybe some of the guys that fly to school will send help."

"Have you seen any? I bet they avoided the storm. Just move over and take the manual. Lisa! You okay back there?"

"Just peaches, Astaire!"

"We're going to go up very quickly, make sure everyone is tight! BAI! VERONICA! HOLD ON!"

Bai was on their side of Ronnie's barrier, and both flashed a thumbs up.

Sam scooted off their bus driver and Astair switched, settling on his pudgy girth. He stretched his legs and found the pedals, accelerator, clutch and brake, as well as a forth one, small and unobtrusive. On the panel before him were a number of switches, clocks and button, just like the illustration in the book.

"Ready?" he asked Sam through gritted teeth. Without waiting for an answer he flipped three of the switches, tugged a lever and the bus groaned under him. He undid the lever sheepishly and pulled the one next to it, slamming the clutch to the floor and mashed down the forth pedal, the ascendant.

The bus jerked straight up almost missing the vertical plane altogether! Several students broke into spasmodic coughing to keep down their breakfast while more fainted. Hair and faces peeled back, they screamed.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Astaire scanned the dash, he only vaguely knew what to do next, but they didn't know that. Tentatively he released the ascendant and jerked the gears down into an unlabelled sixth gear. Finally he released ascendant and the turbos spluttered. The bus slipped in terrifyingly midair and the students were jerked against their bonds!

Astaire screamed with them and slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The engines gunned!

_FWOOSH!_

"AHHHHHHHH!" The students shrieked like the choir of hell as they rocketed into the air. Phenomenal G forces messed with Astaire's head and beside him Sam groaned, struggling to remain conscious himself.

Coming to his senses, he eased the ascendant and the bus's angle lessened to one that didn't turn their brains into cheese.

"Sam! You there buddy?"

"_Mmmph_…"

"Go through that manual! How do you work the map? I have no clue how to get to get to school." He was actually impressed that Sam's fist still bunched the crinkled paper. There was a tense moment of flapping pages but finally as his head dipped to his chest, Sam's hand flopped blindly on the consol and slapped a button.

From the ceiling extended a monitor with two green dots on a grid, one moved away from the other.

Bingo.

"Hold on!" Astaire turned the steering wheel to full lock and the bus whined angrily. He was scared the bus would splinter into pieces under the pressure. Maybe it would but he had to at least get them close to the school! Then the teachers could take over and he could curl into the foetal position, but not until he guided the bus.

He glanced at the monitor, the dot representing the bus blinking furiously despite making a beeline for Sky High which would be sailing placidly through the clouds.

"Sam, what's it doing now?"

"Gyah, wha…." Sam mumbled, slouched against the rainbow restraint.

Damn, gone. Oh well, they were almost there, right through the cloud cover and they'd be on it.

"Okay guys," he said with feigned jolliness over the motionsick moans. "Now for the smooth landing, just through the clou-WHAT!"

His eyes jerked up to the monitor and the two green dots overlayed each other but there was nothing to be seen except clear blue yonder.

"Astaire! What are you pulling?" Bai shouted from the back. Astaire turned for a sharp retort but Bai and Ronnie had their noses pressed against the glass. Fumbling with a button, the side mirrors adjusted to point down and to his horror the floating island of Sky High was directly below.

"Its okay!" he assured, spinning the wheel. "We can do a U-Turn."

"No, we can't," Sam grunted raking back his hair and pointed. Following his gaze he saw both of the girls, Ronnie and Lisa ready to collapse. "It's now or never, champ. Hopefully we'll come out with full brain function and an average of three limbs per person."

Astaire laughed. Trust Sam to chuckle nervously in the face of death. "Lis? You hear? A little while longer, two minutes tops but we need these rainbow seatbelt thingies to hold. Got it?"

"Then someone's….someones shouting me lunch today."

"If we come out alive," Sam muttered. "I'll shout you every day for a month, and a slice of mudcake once a week." That was enough. The belt around his waist blazed briefly, almost a solid spectrum.

"HOLD ON!"

Astaire gave the wheel a savage jerk and released the ascendant pedal.

The bus plummeted! Astaire shrieked with the rest as gravity took over. Wind roared over the bus and its hood burned red! The air around it was red! Embers cascaded past the windows!

To fast! Too goddamned fast. He yanked the gearbox into reverse and slammed on the accelerator.

Sky High loomed.

The turbos on the rear of the bus were tortured into a new angle, grinding and squealing. Hot blue flames licked down the sides. It slowed them, but students howled in pain as the metal conducted the simmering heat. Out of the corner of his eye saw a blonde slam her palms against the wall and a sheet of ice rippled outward, steaming and hissing.

"THIS IS IT!" One last time Astaire yanked the gearbox into third, reeled the wheel, and prayed.

On the ground below, students walked serenely to their first period.

Some hearing an odd whistling sound glanced over the side or around them, but no one looked up. They were as high up as they could go and still breathe easily so nothing ever came from above.

One student, dressed in orange adjusted his glasses. He couldn't possibly seeing what he thought he was seeing.

A bus ablaze hurtling towards the oval.

"Maj. Zack. Can you look at this for a moment?"

"Yeah, wassup Ethan?" his fluorescent friend grinned. The grin faltered.

'Holy moly! Will! _Wiiiiiiill_!"

The other students turned towards the yelling and followed their gaze. A shadow was pooling on the grass, and shrinking rapidly.

A bus. It was falling. Towards them.

Panic.

Squeals and wailing rang across the school yard that was usually silent between classes. Kids ran away, others came to see what they were clamouring about, teachers stuck their heads out of classrooms.

To their disbelief, what was essentially a yellow brick tumbled through the air, wind roaring along its sides and stripping it clean of its paint. Battered metal gleamed white hot and its tires exploded like grenades splattering the ground and sizzling.

In what seemed like slow motion, it struck the ground like an earthquake. The floating of island of Sky High rocked in mid air like a seesaw, but that couldn't slow the furious momentum of the bus. It skipped like a stone, flipping and somersaulting, before striking the ground solidly, what was left of the turbines hurling shards of glowing metal across the green sports oval and burying its tail deep into ground.

Students dove for cover inside the nearest building, the library and its famous façade, pouring into the gym like ants fleeing a giant shoe.

Still it couldn't stop.

Glowing and sizzling it gouged a deep crevasse in its wake.

It headed straight for famous front steps of Sky High, and the students that hid inside.

The department heads of Science, Physical Education and Hero Support rushed across the churned up grass and a sparkling comet blazed above them but it seemed nothing could save the historic building.

"Stronghold! Get out of the way!" bawled Tommy Boomer, aka Sonic Boom. His co-workers staggered, half deafened but the skinny figure it was aimed at braced himself. There was no way he could stop the pelting vehicle that was suddenly on top of him!

_BOOOOM!_

The back end of the bus was punched in, groaning and squashing like a softdrink can as the momentum petered away and finally came to a standstill.

Everything was silent, except the faint popping of cooling metal.

"Yeah Will!" shouted the red head who had looked on confidently. With that cheers erupted from the students, rushing in for a closer look at the wreckage or to clap the teenager who'd saved the day on the back.

The staff of Sky High still rushed to mark the damage. Scrambling down and up the other side of the gully, Dr Medulla huffed to Mr Boy, "I'm a mad scientist! I'm not expected to run!"

Suddenly, a figure cleared the gully in a flying leap, landed heavily but took off again, pounding across the turf, his face a mix of fear and fury. That damned bus driver. Everyone knew Jacko couldn't land a model airplane let alone a rocket powered bus.

Students clustered around the bus, quiet and morbidly curious. It felt profane to break the silence. Could anyone survive it? No sounds came from with in and the dark clothed boy held his breath.

"Get out of my way!" Warren snarled crunching the glittering glass under his boots. His old reputation still held strong and they backed away clearing a path. He stood before it, his face carefully blank. Heat still radiated of the crumpled metal.

"Priss?" he shouted, breaking that sucking silence. Nothing answered back and without a moments pause he leapt up the side of the bus, gripping the hard the shattered window panes. Those close recoiled in sympathy, almost imagining the whiff of cooking flesh but Warren only grimaced and pulled himself onto the roof where a hole gaped mockingly. More visions assailed his mind, kids being ripped through it, one in particular.

He dropped through the gap, the metal ringing under his combat boots and through the rectangles of light streaming through the window frames, a soft, barely perceptible green glow.

He barely noticed the golden sparks coalescing beside him into Principal Powers. She let out a loud sigh of relief and shot a sideways glance as Warren. While his attire hadn't changed since last years homecoming, his attitude had.

"We'll make a hero of you yet Mr Peace," she smiled, stepping carefully between the glass slivers towards the glow.

To her amazement, the two dozen students looking exhausted and shellshocked, but were protected by the bright green bubble, young Veronica Carver at its centre. Her heavy lidded eyes lifted to the principal, then slid shut and the bubble vanished dumping its cargo roughly on the floor.

Warren crossed the gap in long strides and gently lifted Priscilla to her feet. He still wore a gruff expression as stubborn as any goat, but he took her hand and led her back to the gap.

"Your hands!" she gasped, lifting them into the light where they were gooey with busted blisters. Still smiling gratefully, she brushed them with a frosty coat. "I thought you'd be immune it."

"Evidently not," he smirked, and helped her up into the sunlight.

"Is everyone alright in there Sarah?"

Principal Powers hesitated, sweeping her gaze over the rest of the crashees who were still finding their sense of balance. "No one's dead, but they look like they've been through a hurricane."

"And it's still better than some of Jacko's landings," someone muttered shakily and his classmates giggled with relief.

Coach Boomer appeared from overhead and offered a hand down, one by one pulling the students out.

"Wait!" Astaire moved through the group and Coach Boomer regarded him warily as his epithet of Class Clown was deserved. But now that the terror was over, his face was crushed. Bai, appeared at his shoulder, his wings crumpled, also looking heartbroken and weary. "Two kids, Scott Hamish and a new kid. Called Erin. They, they fell out, seven, maybe eight miles up."

"Their powers-"

"Scod had invisibility, and the girl said herself that she couldn't fly."


	2. I'm Still Standing!

_Ahh, after the longest time I've updated. More out of curiosity for the fandom again. I'm glad to see the quality has improved but also nice to see my walking talking Sue still has some parody to reflect off. Cheers mates, crit appreciated!_

* * *

**Sky Hooked  
****_Chapter 2_**_  
I'm Still Standing!_

* * *

No hesitation. She flopped bodily over the back of the seat and dropped into the clouds. Just in time Erin snatched her basketball shorts before they ripped away in the high winds. 

She tussled for a moment with gravity but bullied it into doing what she wanted.

When forced to describe the sensation of her powers, it was of having one end of a rope lashed around your waist and other, by way of a tree, in your hands and yanking. Sometimes all that was needed was a neat tug to give her a bit of spring in her step but this time Erin reached out with the mental equivalent of a bulldozer.

Still bunching her waistline tightly in her fist, she plunged downwards.

Inside her body physiological changes adapted immediately to the change. She shuddered violently as her ears adjusted with a faint pop and that horrid bubbling feeling that felt like her earwax had melted. The roaring, shrieking, deafening wind was now only a low purr. Blood immediately surged to the subcutaneous veins to contain heat while trapping warm air from thermal spirals against her body hair. A thick, almost glassy film coated her eyes and allowed her to stare into the wind. Her nostrils dilated to accommodate the high velocity winds and biting chill. Her lungs felt like a rubber band was twined around each one because of the sudden pressure changes but soon they breathed deep and calmly.

No more than five seconds after she dropped from the bus the changes were complete and she fell downwards chasing the buses slipstream. It wouldn't last long and was already petering out but it was the best chance to find the boy, Scod. Clouds drifted over the trail and soon she was lost, but let the natural tug of the earth guide her way, allowing the battering gusts push her as they would have him.

Now she had direction and with another sharp jerk, Erin jetted towards him, breathing heavier as her lungs laboured to adjust again. They prickled and ached in the icy air while her stomach did more backflips than a circus poodle.

There!

A small black dot that swelled in her vision, arms flailed. He was swallowed by the last cloud layer, but Erin felt a bright stab of relief. She exhaled the breath from her lungs in last gambit for extra speed, and hurled herself along the mental rope.

She stretched her body, one arm in front, the other still refusing to let go of her shorts. Her lungs throbbed and her head now had to tolerate no air at all. She'd never gone this fast, never conceived it but it felt like her autonomic system was handling everything superbly!

_Fwoof!_

Erin exploded from the clouds with a triumphant yell.

Right beside Scod.

Everything happened so fast it was perceived as one flowing second.

Scod screamed louder as she appeared at his shoulder.

Scod began to spin, slow as if on a spindle.

Scod vanished into thin air.

Erin's ears popped so suddenly, so savagely and so unexpectedly, she let go of gravity altogether and tumbled upwards back into the cloud cover and sucked in a gasp of air.

Pain pierced her lungs. Her ears rang and bubbled. Her head was dizzy with the sudden intake of oxygen.

Over the winds and ringing, she could barely hear Scod's hoarse screaming, but it was enough.

She battled down again into the clear blue sky. Luckily the rolling grasslands below still had little detail. She grimaced.

Scod was nowhere in sight, but could she hear him? She craned her body, not daring to turn her neck for fear of snapping it under the G Forces her body miraculously coped with. She still couldn't find him, but the dull whistle of something still sliced the air like…like… To say like a knife was lying. Perhaps like a rock, or a cow, or voltwagon…….

Erin giggled at the minds eye watching a rock, a cow and a voltwagon fall through the atmosphere in succession but immediately drummed purpose back into her forethoughts. The rapid decrease and then increase in air pressure affected her brain. It was like the bends in reverse and exactly the same as being drunk. Getting her head to concentrate on something as tiny as displaced air was like getting a missile to hit a penny in the Sahara Desert.

Invisibility?

The certainty eventually solidified in her mind. She could focus where the sound was coming from, using her gravitational powers to sync with the fall.

Erin darted another look downwards. Vague features, tracts of trees, the thin blue line of a creek were blossoming.

Now there was a big dose of sobriety.

But she couldn't grab him yet. Just before he disappeared he was spinning like a string went straight through his belly button and by now he would have enormous speed. If she tried to grab him their limbs would snap like twigs under the might. She had to stop it, but to stop it she had to see him.

_Be calm. Be calm and he'll be calm._

Granted, it was easy to be calm when there was no possibility of _your_ body being laminated over three square kilometres.

"SCOD, MATE!" she yelled as serenely as could be achieved when you're rushing at 200 km's an hour and the ground was gaining details like a hurried sketch artist by the second. "IS THAT IT? IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE KNOWN FAR AND WIDE, EMPHASIS ON THE WORD _WIDE_, AS THE BOY WHO FELL OUT OF THE BUS ON THE FIRST DAY, I'D REAPPEAR. _RIGHT._ _NOW_."

The air to her left, not quite where she'd been concentrating shimmered, then focused. Scod was there. His eyes thankfully closed but his limbs spreadeagled for the world's biggest bellyflop.

And he spun.

"I'M GOING TO COME FROM BENEATH YOU AND GIVE YOUR-" Erin paused, gauging where she would do the least damage. Sternum could shatter and there'd go his ribs, diaphragm, lungs ….. "SHOULDER. YOU WILL FLIP, BUT YOU WILL STOP SPINNING, AND I WILL CATCH YOU. _DON'T_ FLOP LIKE A DEAD FISH!"

A fraction of a nod.

Jaunting down again, Erin realized she still had the hem of her pants balled in her fist. And that she would have to let go. It should have been a very easy decision to make, pants for a human life, but she struggled with it. Dignity for honour...Aww!

_Why didn't I wear jeans? On the count of three. One… Two...… Two… Twooooooo. One…. Two...Two and a half…. Thre…..Two…..._

"DAMNIT! THREE!"

Her basketball shorts were whipped from her legs and even her knickers made a bid for freedom but luckily they were new and the elastic was strong. She shot up, palm thrust forward and smacked hard on the clavicle. Scod cried out but maintained his frozen rictus. He turned over and Erin looped her arms around his lanky middle and stopped.

Or tried to.

While she could make gravity let go of her, Scod's earthbound attraction was terminally stubborn. Her fingers were slipping as his weight bore down.

_Comeoncomeoncomeon…_ she chanted inwardly as she struggled to hold them both up.

Sometimes she could make the things she held as weightless as she, bricks or a chair but most other times she couldn't. It was linked to her brain's certainty that she couldn't lift someone twice as tall and heavy as she. A purely mental barrier she struggled to overcome as the aether around her congealed so that could at least hang where they were.

Forcing herself not to pant for air or giggle like an eight year old, Erin shifted her grip and stared helplessly into the air above her. Taking in a slow breath she grunted and strained but could only inch upwards.

Moreover, how did you even get to Sky High? The clouds were clearing and soon people below might start asking questions. She most definitely couldn't go down.

"Scod, you 'wake?" Scod however had passed out with sheer relief; his head and shaggy black hair lolly over her shoulder. Blood trickled from one ear and the corner of his mouth. She hoped a slightly damaged eardrum was the least of his worries but she couldn't be sure. It was an even more urgent reason to find her the school. That, and she was wet and freezing. Her hair plastered across her cheek and neck or was dragged by the air currents that still raced around them.

She spun listlessly as she recovered her breath hoping for direction when she spotted dot coming towards her. It was also eating up the distance like Roadrunner. After a few seconds she realised it was another student and she called out frantically. The figure smiled reassuringly and after another interval he pulled up cheerily beside her.

Skinny with sandy blonde hair and the most Americanly patriotic clothing she had seen yet, he hovered beside her and waved.

"Hi! Are you Erin?" Her eyes narrowed implying that there were an infinite number of girls hanging around struggling to hold up unconscious boys. "Right, right," he waved it away sheepishly. "I'm Will."

Again she didn't speak, only giving Scod's boneless body a jiggle pointedly, when she suddenly remembered she had no pants on and it was only Scod who maintained her modesty. As he reached out to relieve the weight she shifted away.

"Hang on, we're in a bit of trouble here," she said with a lopsided smile. "I, you see, didn't wear a belt this morning, and you might know how it is hurtling through the air at breakneck speed."

"Oh." His eyes bulged as he caught on and shut his eyes frantically. "Oh! Ohhhh! Uh, yeah, my mom warned me about that. Can you get back up yourself? Maybe I can fly back up and borrow something from my friends-"

"I can't hold Scod much longer."

"Then what?"

Erin blew out the pent up air through her nose recalling the irony of her conversation with that AID's kid, Astaire about superhero's not being meatheads. Exhibit A looked around for inspiration.

"What if I close my eyes and take him and then fly him up and you can follow me. I promise I won't look down. I got a girlfriend, I bet she'll lend you a skirt. Are you a freshman? A first year? You must be 'cause I haven't seen you around. Unless you're an exchange student." At this Will stiffened and opened one eye warily. "Are you an elemental?" he asked with the same expression of a bomb technician earning his paycheck.

"No, gravity." She'd let the other little power lie secret for now.

He still didn't look reassured but held his hands open ready to take Scod. "He's bleeding."

"Might have stretched his eardrum, mighta busted it, mighta haemorrhaged," she said vaguely as she pawned him onto the talkative boy. Like most people, she found it hard drawing conclusions about things that didn't affect her. Will looked at her horrified.

"How fast are you, we have to get him there! I can travel at supersonic speeds and I-"

"Nu-uh. You have to get him there steadily. Go up fast enough and you'll rupture his lungs, which have probably already taken a good beating," Erin corrected impatiently, dropping below him and out of his direct line of vision. She shivered as mist condensed on her skin, and drew her legs up closer so that her poloshirt could at least reach her knees. She was suddenly thankful for her tacky idea of fashion.

"I forgot about that, you want to follow me?" Will said, keeping his eyes straight ahead.

"Lead the way."

* * *

Astaire sat against the tree with his knees drawn to his chest and overlooking the edge of the island with a dull achey nervousness. Bai leaned beside him, one wing flexing in a similarly absent habit, both watching the misty clouds roll and roil around the island like river foam. 

"D'ya think they… you know…made it," Astaire mumbled, resting his chin. He'd _been there_ and he still didn't believe it! And Bai had been right next to her and _he_ didn't believe it.

Bai was Chinese, but you'd never really know unless you were close up. His hair was white, not blonde or bleached, pure white that was cropped short but loose. His eyes though still almond and slanted were baby blue. The whole effect was one of angelic purity, quiet and thoughtful, or at least until he levelled his serrated, sarcastic wit in your direction.

Astaire, whose grasp of psychology was the same as his grasp of astrophysics, theorised it came to do with his upbringing in a highly superstitious country province. Growing hair at puberty was difficult enough, watching your child grown feathers and learn to fly was a whole new parental anxiety.

From the story he could pry from his friend it seemed that only the local monk knew what he really was and it was sad to say encouraged he be hidden from sight until he could be smuggled to America where there were not only people like him, but schools for people like him. Bai was currently staying in a foster home with Priss Winters and with a little help from the Mad Science Department he could even hang around in public for long stints.

And in his usual way, there was a longish pause while he arranged his sentence in English. "I saw her. She was very purposeful as she leapt out the window. I highly doubt she'd have done so just to keep Scod company on the way down."

"But she said she couldn't fly, she said," he struggled, panic rising. Bai, Astaire and Scod's big brother Daniel had started in first year together, the best of friends, but Danny had dropped out to go back to ordinary high school. That same year Scod, a year their junior came through. They looked after the brother whose geeky gawkiness had filled the missing elements left by his brother. How would they explain to Dan they'd let him fall out of the bus on the first day of school? "She said she wasn't wind based, she said-"

"So perhaps she teleports, or levitates or shapeshifts in to a bird."

Astaire's eyes went wide with alarm. "Oh god, not another phoenix!"

He shook his head and muttered wordlessly into his chest and glanced at his watch. All the excitement hadn't taken more than five minutes and year meetings wouldn't start for another twenty minutes.

The other kids were milling around the survivors and the bus talking in low and excited voices. Everyone knew the storm had been supernatural and there were rumours super villains had found a way to track the school. Despite the beating they'd taken, most were fine and making a slow migration to the Nurse's office and, Astaire noticed, the boys more then girls as another first day rumour was that the new nurse was hot as.

Bai and himself weren't going anywhere until there was word. Will Stronghold had taken off twenty seconds ago and he wondered what was taking him so long.

"It looks like others are too tough for treatment," Bai said cheerily as the latest goth transfer was pointedly ignoring the blood running over her fishnet pantyhose. The cut was shallow but enthusiastic, and apparently not alone. Another cutter.

She was also making supposed absent passes in front of Warren and Priss as they pulled up a seat beneath a shade tree in the bright morning sunlight. To Warren's obvious annoyance, he was also joined by his little clutch of sidekicks. Zachary Davis was gesturing broadly as he asked the world, "He where's Will, he left like thirty seconds ago?"

Toothache, trying to hide her disgust, still wasn't getting a speck of interest and Astaire surveyed her moodily. While there was no denying she was pretty behind the torn clothes and piercings, it was definitely a skin deep beauty.

When no sympathy was forth coming, Toothache snapped her fingers and a cheery ball of flame curled around her fingers, rolling it across her knuckles like a magician with her coin, feigning absorption in its dancing light. Astaire could see her brain ticking away trying to think of something spontaneously deep and meaningful to say when asked what she was doing.

The scene was enough to derail Astaire's dark train of thought and he broke into his customary Cheshire grin.

Poor widdle Warren. Sucks to be him.

He'd had started in their first year too, but quickly earned a rep for a tinderbox temper and the social graces of an elephant in musk. What was more it was a self imposed solitude, he exorcised himself. Bai, whose empathetic abilities while not superhuman, were at the very least keen said it was more then just his father. Perhaps that's how it started but as he got used to being alone eventually found actually found it easier not talk.

All that had changed last year when his merry band of sidekicks joined him and seemed to kick start the art of conversation again with almost terminal determination. Priss, another in third year, was a dozen more steps in the right direction even if the pyro himself wouldn't admit it. She was the sweetest, classiest girls Astaire knew. What a pair.

Last year was a revolution in itself for the school when that same bunch of sidekicks became heroes.

Sky High had been pushing for a new hero support curriculum for years with the Phys Ed teacher, Boomer unexpectedly shoving the hardest. Royal Pain's attack was all that was needed to get the High-Up's who clung to tradition like limpets to cave to his constant pressure. Now Hero Support was worth more then the paper their graduation certificate was printed on.

Toothache made another winding path past the couple yielding nothing when he couldn't shut his mouth, "Hey Peace! Don't you believe in love at first sight, or does Fluffy have to walk by you again?"

"Shut up you little-" Toothache snarled, swearing explicitly. She pounced on him like a rabid dog, crossing the distance between them in long strides. She snatched his collar and yanked him unceremoniously into the air. Strength too it seemed.

"I wouldn't do that unless you to have a zit the size of a Everest right in the middle of your forehead and a really bad case of tinea," he chuckled breezily, despite the fact his buttons might have been cutting off blood supply. She hesitated with her first raised to pound him, embers swirling around it and her eyes (_Dear lord, colour changing eyes too)_ flittered around his face like smart rodent considering if the scorpion was worth a meal. Did she know he was a pathac, or did she think he was bluffing? If so his world was soon going to be defined by the words _extra crispy._

She grimaced but finally dropped him. "You'll be sorry you crossed me," she hissed wetly into his eye, shoving him roughly back into the bark and stalked off across the sports oval.

Bai shook his head chidingly but his wings, which were as expressive as his face should have been, were doing their laughter jiggle. Stirring the hordes of the We Wuv Warren Club had become their private sport.

"High five, Bai, high five."

"Next time keep your observations to yourself," Warren scowled and in that moment Priss's eyes dropped, then followed the goth girl up the library steps.

_Poor kid, even if they don't stand a chance, it's gotta get to her some time._

By the time Warren had turned back, she brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and was playing with one of her large hoop earrings confidently. "Go on, get Nurse Spex to look at your hands or they'll hurt all day."

"Stop nagging will you?" he said gruffly. Priss didn't mind, it was just his way and knew her concern was appreciated. "Where's Stronghold?"

Astaire's pressed in a thin line again when suddenly cheers leapt up from the island's edge. The curious clustered around the teachers as the dorky Will Stronghold laid a prone figure on the scorched grass. Bai glided gracefully to Scod's side with Astaire at his primary's pushing himself between the crowd to reach his friend.

"Back, everyone back," Principal Powers demanded, wading through them with more grace. "Or I'll tag you all with detention slips."

The students groaned but stepped back, craning on their toes to see over Bai's wings as he fanned the air gently. Will meanwhile was relating enthusiastically had had happened to Powers.

Boomer checked Scod's pulse and lifted his eyelids. He tilted his head sideways and lifted up his shaggy black hair to peer into his ear with knotted brows. A thin dribble of blood caked his neck alarmingly and, like the others, Astaire waited with baited breath.

Will, who'd stepped back to give them room, said helpfully, "Erin said he might have ruptured his eardrum, or an aneurism."

Boomer nodded that this was a distinct possibility. So far Scod hadn't stirred at all so Boomer clapped his hands loudly by his ear.

Scod flinched but didn't wake up. It didn't seem to matter to Boomer who broke into a thankful smile, but hid it quickly. "Well it's not an aneurism and his eardrums aren't ruptured at least, damaged but not ruptured. His pulse is a little fast so let's move him carefully. Stronghold?"

"On it," he beamed, bundling up the tall boy again and setting off with Layla beside him. Bai and Astaire moved to follow, but Astaire stopped. "One of us should thank Erin."

Bai nodded and strode to catch up to Scod.

In all the excitement everyone had forgotten about the skinny little Indonesian and they began peering morbidly over the side again. "Hey, there's something over there! Like flapping material," one of the kids exclaimed, pointing down into the rocky crevices of the island a way down to their left.

"MS ERIN, IS THAT YOU DOWN THERE!" Tony Boomer commanded in a voice like a shockwave which knocked a few kids dangerously off balance.

"Yeeeeesss," a thin voice came back, wavering timorously in the wind.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN THERE! GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE THIS INSTANT!"

After a moment the voice came back, almost panicky. "What, now? Where's the geek? I can't come up now!"

"ARE YOU DISOBEYING AN ORDER?" Boomer yelled again, glaring fiercely at the piece of blue material snapping like a flag in the wind. He could now also make out the dark flesh of a leg. _Girls these days have no modesty,_ he thought rolling his eyes.

"An order?" The voice was little more then desperate squeak. Behind the crevice there was a bit of shifting. When a head appeared, its eyes were closed and its expression squeezed into one of agony. She levitated up, her legs drawn up beneath the almost billowing poloshirt, and settled on the grass a distance away. The kids that were left, a dozen or so roared their approval again and ran to lift her onto their shoulders.

At the pounding footsteps, Erin opened her eyes and looked up. Teens many times her size stampeded towards her.

She sneezed. And again, and again, and again.

Looking up was a very bad mistake for Erin. She panicked, and sneezed.

The sneeze convulsed her body savagely. It huddled to hide it's pantlessness on the ground and suddenly she was hurled from her own head into someone else's. In their bobbing vision she was hit by another body jerking sneeze she was thrown again behind a new set framed by black and red bangs.

She sneezed again, this time seeing herself roll onto her side unable to control herself and she sneezed again to see herself from another disorientating angle.

She sneezed thrice more in quick succession and felt sick and dizzy and bounced to another head by another sneeze that actually wracked her muscles like a stitch. She wheezed, but couldn't catch her breath in time for the next sneeze and next set of eyes.

The kids around her new vision had slowed to a stop watching an almost seizure of sneezes grip her. She wanted to close her eyes but the set she was behind wouldn't even blink. She tried to calm herself, to focus on something other then the fact she was flashing her knickers to the whole school on the first day.

_One, two, buckle my shoe. _Another sneeze and she found herself looking at a purple girl beside her new vessel.

_Three, four, knock on the door!_ _Five, six, pick up sticks!_ She sneezed again, and was now looking how beyond neat blonde fringe into the confused features of a dark chiselled face. Its owner shrugged and watched the milling students not going closer for fear she'd explode or something. It was always a risk with superheros. The realisation she'd never live this down, especially in front of a boy as good looking as he, sent her sneezing and spiralling to another set of eyes as she tried to train her thoughts again.

_The rhyme, focus on the words! Seven, eight, lay them straight! Nine, ten, a big fat hen! Eleven, twelve, dig and delve!_

Her body was calming down. Another sneeze took her, but this time more gently and the transition between heads was smoother, this time older and with a baseball cap balanced on his head. He yanked off his sports jacket and dropped it across her lower half, closing his eyes out of respect.

_Thirteen, fourteen, maids are courting! Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen! Seventeen, eighteen, maids are waiting,_ her breath still heaving but she now had control of her powers as the man she was in closed his eyes on her and knelt beside her to hold her quivering body still. Sucking a last trembling breath and squeezing her teary but unseeing eyes shut, she blinked back into her own body. At last she could assemble herself. _Nineteen, twenty, maids aplenty._

"Please let me go back down," she whispered, still out of breath. "The wind took my pants."

"Of course," Mr Boomer said almost gently, then whirled on the student thundering, "I SAID, **BACK!** AND KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED!"

Blown off their feet, they landed far enough away to allow herself a little bit of reserve. Boomer, with his eyes still closed heard the ruffle of his sports jacket could feel the whiff of air and she floated back below eye line.

He waited a moment later and he stood up as kid's goggled at him. He trained his glare on one and snapped. "Hey furball," he snapped at the guinea pig shapeshifter. "Snap change behind that tree and give her your spare pants."

She looked about to say something snide just because of the voice, but it was a reasonable request. A snap change was a technique taught to everyone who'd need to dress quickly in a telephone booth and even Boomer wasn't quite sure how it worked but furball walked behind a tree and when she came out the other side she was wearing her gym clothes. She scowled but held out a black and purple lace skirt.

"Ms Erin," Boomer called down sternly. Poor kid, but he wasn't here to baby them. "I have a skirt _kindly_ donated by one of your fellow student."

Erin, shivering below with her heart heavy and probably trying to hide behind her kidneys thought she heard sarcasm as she knotted the sports jacket around her waist. She sniffled again, not crying although she felt like it but the cold was getting to her body as it reverted back to its normal state. The gel like fluid that protected her eyes plopped onto her cheek like conjunctivitis but she wiped it away.

Suddenly some fabric fell past her weighted by a heavy buckled belt, but she pushed away from the island and grabbed it easily enough. It was a skirt, she wasn't normally a skirt person but a time like this beggars couldn't be choosers. She slipped it on, cinching the belt tightly and pushing it down like a mid air Marylyn Monroe over a storm grate. She was about to rise up over the lip of the island when she thought better of it.

"Are they gone?" she bleated, shading her eyes against the glare to see the silhouettes of students trying to get a better look.

If she was expecting sympathy she was disappointed. The man who'd given her his jacket now stood right on the edge looking down with a critical eye. "IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THEY ARE OR NOT! YOU'RE AT SKY HIGH NOW AND WE DON'T MOLLYCODDLE WHINERBABIES WHO CAN'T TAKE A LITTLE CHARACTER BUILDING. GET UP HERE AND STOP YOUR SNIVELLING."

"Yes sir," she almost whimpered, suitably admonished as she passed him his spray jacket back. She hated being in trouble, it always made her feel like a five year old with her hand in the lolly jar. When she settled on the grass again it was to the gazes of perhaps two dozen kids now, plus the three teachers. And that of the disinterested bloke with black and red hair.

She stepped back involuntarily and flushed looking at the ground, despite the fact there was no ground beneath her.

Thankfully she was saved by the bell. The warning bell for home room in fact and the woman in a dressy business suit clapped her hands together., a poster woman for feminism.

"Alright students, start of year meeting. First years, go to the gym. Second year the hall! Third's quadrangle, forth canteen and fifth the senior's area! Hop to it! Education isn't to be wasted standing around gawking. Not you Miss Solaimun, yes you Master Wrinser. Your cohort too."

"Hang on ma'am!" Astaire jogged forward, and Erin noticed for the first time how big he really was, a born rugby player.

Principal Powers pursed her lips. "Why don't you escort her to my office then, but don't be too long."

Levelling the entourage with a warning look, she coalesced it a thick cloud of golden light and flew off towards the main buildings with Erin staring longingly after her. She took another step back into the aether and tugged down on the purple tartan of the skirt.

"Hey, don't stretch it. I wore that on first day for a reason."

"Sorry," she mumbled, dropping her gaze. The clouds were looking more inviting by the second.

The owner of the lent skirt clicked her tongue in a way that suggested she hoped stupid wasn't contagious, but if it was there was nothing a little homebrand phrenology or good fashioned ol' blood letting couldn't cure. So it was to her surprise when the purple garbed girl, though still at distance with her arms crossed said brusquely, "Majenta."

"I beg your pardon?" she asked feeling dumber by the second.

"I'm Majenta. That's Ethan, Zack, Warren, Priss and, you seem to know Astaire."

_Warren, his name is Warren!_ She thought, her heart doing a little hop-skip. She didn't miss however how possessively he stood next to Priss. He flicked his head, seemingly to say 'Wasup' while his girlfriend conjured a fragile ice daisy which already began to dribble in the strong sunlight, sappy but welcome.

Zach, a shockingly white hiphopper grinned a little too broadly and filled up the gap in sentences with babble she couldn't quite follow, trying to set her at ease. His best friend Ethan complimented her on the save, fawning really but sincere all the same. Both were dressed like they wanted careers in directing traffic and they kept their eyes forcibly at head height.

"I'm Erin." She stalled and Majenta looked around bored, starting her walk to the school with them all them falling into step, Astaire beside her. "Will I ever live this down?"

"Yeah yeah," she said peevishly, kicking Zach's ankles. "So the school saw you in you underwear. The smart ones will remember you lost them saving a kid who didn't have a chance."

Astaire gave her an amiable punch in the arm. "Thanks about that. I grew up with the dork and I can't imagine life without him."

"So," Priss warmly, look over her shoulder to speak. Erin could help envying the smooth silky flick of her blonde hair compared to her own slick black ponytail. "You're meeting up with Principal Powers. Are you a transfer? You look young, if you don't mind me saying."

"Nope, I'm seventeen so I guess that makes me a third year. My parents only just found out about my powers. I guess you could say my mum set me up with tutors so I could stay with my age group."

"I can tell," Astaire grinned, giving her arm a poke. "Look at those muscles!"

Erin had all the muscle definition of polypipe, while Astaire looked like he'd been a gorilla in his past life and only just avoided being it in this one.

"Well we have to get to class," Priss reminded unenthusiastically. "If you're a third year you might get to be with Warren and I. Astaire too."

Erin nodded, smiling tightly. Priss and Warren, not giving her more than a cursory glance branched off one way, while Majenta, Zach and Ethan went another.

"Well Erin," Astaire said exhaling with relief and his chest above his heart a thump. "That's about enough excitement for one morning, eh? This way to Principal Powers office. And, you never did tell me what your powers were. Is it Super Sneezing?"

Erin shook her head vigorously, went to say something but stopped. "I just sneeze when I'm nervous, and the more I sneeze the more nervous I get. Sometimes I think I'm going to sneeze my brains out my ears. But my power's gravity. I just find something to push or pull against and it works."

To demonstrate she exuded a little force focused the balls of her feet and she climbed an invisible staircase. "The bigger the better, but I guess in theory I could use a pea or a piece of paper. Everything's got gravity."

"That's pretty nifty, but probably not as useful for getting out of fun-runs."

* * *

_Tadaaaa! Not much but hopefully enjoyable!_


End file.
